KISS - Keep It Simple Silly... I have to admit that this is the part I like the best about Ripariums - all my other tanks need so much love compared to my little riparium

Yep riparium setups are ideally nice and simple.

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As usual, I have a somewhat off-this-topic questions, For plants on rafts and in planters:

1) do the roots need to be trimmed? How often? Beneficial/Harmful?

Sometimes the roots will grow from the bottoms of the planters and get pretty long, but it is fine to trim them.

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2) In doing so, is the effect like bonsai - resulting in smaller growth/ controlled growth?

Shorter roots might slow the plant down a bit, but not too much.

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3) Is replanting of the planters suggested after a period of time, say in a year or more? (add root tabs - trim roots etc?)

That depends. Most kinds of riparium plants can stay in the planters for a quite a long time...a whole year or more. If you have a clumping or rhizomatous plant you might however want to knock it out of the planter to divide so that you can have more. I often do this with crypts because they can grow into really dense clumps with lots of shoots in the planter. Some plants will get to be very root-bound in the planters, but most do not seem bothered by this at all. There is however one kind of plant that grows such dense roots that it can start to bend the sindes of the planter. The Cyperus that I use a lot grows a lot of hairy roots and it might be a good idea to repot it before it gets really big. Otherwise it is just hard to get it our of the planter.